Tag: Dryden Lectureship in Research

Robert H. Liebeck Delivers AIAA 2016 Dryden Lectureship in Research

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Robert H. Liebeck, Boeing Senior Technical Fellow, AIAA Honorary Fellow, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

by Lawrence Garrett, AIAA Web Editor

Robert H. Liebeck, senior technical fellow at Boeing, delivered the 2016 AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Research on the evening of Jan. 5 at the AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition in San Diego. The lecture was titled “Blended Wing Body Technology Readiness.”

John Vassberg, Boeing technical fellow and chief of aerodynamics for Boeing research and technology, introduced Liebeck as a “world renowned authority in the fields of aerodynamics, hydrodynamics and aircraft design” and the “co-inventor of the blended-wing body concept.”

Liebeck’s lecture took the audience through a comprehensive overview of the development life cycle of the blended-wing aircraft — from the early BWB concepts first created in 1989, through the completion of the test program on April 9, 2013 with the final flight of the X-48C demonstrator.

A big obstacle was getting the flight mechanics robust enough for a blended-wing aircraft to fly like a regular airplane and be lightweight, Liebeck said.

“It was a real challenge to get the inertias close, to have a dynamically scaled airplane,” he said.

According to Liebeck, a full-scale airplane, with flight-control hardware active, endured 250 hours of tests at the full-scale wind tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

“To be able to go into a wind tunnel with, in essence, a full-scale airplane was special,” he said.

Liebeck said the BWB project was 50 percent Boeing and 50 percent NASA and that the 2007 X-48B configuration was featured in TIME magazine “as the second best invention of 2007.”

Calling the X-48B flight test program a success, Liebeck said the transition to the X-48C, the low-emission concept evolution, with its two bigger, higher-thrust engines, is the direction the BWB concept is headed.

Liebeck said that 30 X-48C test flights were completed, and that overall, the whole X-48 project saw a total of 122 test flights. Although the X-48C is on display at the Air Force Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base and the X-48 equipment is in storage, “those airplanes are still flyable,” he said.

As a result of the two-decade-plus project, Liebeck said that a robust set of BWB flight-control laws have now been developed and verified.

“We can build the airplane,” he said.

Asked by a member of the audience when a production model might be built, Liebeck said if it were up to him, it would be tomorrow.

“All I can say is, hey, you can build one of these, and I think you can now … Oh, it’d be higher risk than a tube and wing airplane, but I don’t think there’d be any showstoppers.”

Video

All 2016 AIAA SciTech Forum Videos

2022 AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Research Awarded to Anthony M. Waas

Lecture will be Delivered on 5 January, During 2022 AIAA SciTech Forum

January 3, 2022 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce the 2022 AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Research is awarded to Anthony M. Waas, the Richard A. Auhll Department Chair of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Waas will deliver his lecture, “Digital Tools for Design and Analysis of Composite Aerostructures,” Wednesday, 5 January, 1800 hrs PT, during the 2022 AIAA SciTech Forum, San Diego and online, 3-7 January. Registration is still open to attend in San Diego in person, or online. Journalists can request a Press Pass here.

The Dryden Lecture in Research is one of the most prestigious lectures bestowed by the Institute. Since the inaugural lecture in 1961, it has been a catalyst for sharing research advancements and knowledge. This premier lecture is named in honor of Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, a renowned aerospace leader and the director of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA, as well as the first deputy administrator of NASA when the agency was created in 1958. The award emphasizes the importance of basic research in advancing aeronautics and astronautics.

Waas has been with the University of Michigan since 2018. Prior to that he was the Boeing Egtvedt Endowed Chair Professor and Department Chair in the William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington, Seattle. Waas was the Felix Pawlowski Collegiate Chair Professor of Aerospace Engineering, and the Director, Composite Structures Laboratory, at the University of Michigan, from 1988 to 2014, prior to joining the University of Washington in 2015.

Waas is a Fellow of AIAA. He also is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, the American Society for Composites, the American Academy of Mechanics and the Royal Aeronautical Society, UK. In 2017, Waas was elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences, and in 2018 to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is also the recipient of the 2020 AIAA ICME Prize and the 2020 ASME Warner T. Koiter Medal. Recently, Waas was elected to the U.S. National Academies Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board.

For more information about the AIAA Honors and Awards program, contact Patricia A. Carr at [email protected].

Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, APR, [email protected], 804.397.5270 (cell)

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Flying Safer, Flying Steadier — the Role of Active Flow Control Technology

Speaker: Israel J. Wygnanski, professor of aerospace engineering, University of Arizona

By Duane Hyland, AIAA Communications (2008-2017)

Active flow control technology holds much promise for helping aircraft designers design safer and more efficient aircraft, Israel J. Wygnanski said Jan. 10 during the Dryden Lectureship in Research at the 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum in Grapevine, Texas.

Wygnanski’s lecture, “Maturation of Active Flow Control Concepts for Improved Aircraft Performance,” examined AFC technology, its uses and the results of recent experiments with the technology.

AFC technology smooths the flow of air over a plane’s surface, allowing for less separation of airflow and resulting in a less turbulent, safer and more efficient flight.

Wygnanski, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Arizona, argued that designers should use AFC technology in the design process. He walked attendees through various technical problems posed by separation of active flows of air over the wings of an aircraft. Examples include “stall, wing-tip stall and buffeting,” which he said threaten an aircraft’s performance.

Wygnanski shared the results of several experiments he conducted that incorporated AFC technology on aircraft. Among his findings was that by using flow actuators, or devices that extend into the flow, as small as one-eighth of an inch on the tail of a Boeing 757 aircraft, Wygnanski’s team saw upwards of “15 percent gains in rudder efficiency.” If the devices were part of the plane’s design, he said, it would mean greater fuel savings and a safer, less turbulent flight.

The team also discovered that these actuators “lead to greater stabilization of the aircraft by keeping the flows under control,” Wygnasnki said, adding that they “change the aircraft’s yawing motion, resulting in steadier yaw control” with less roll.

Wygnasnki concluded that based on what he has seen in tests, the industry should integrate AFC technology into aircraft design.

“We can no longer ignore AFC,” he said.

Video

All 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum Videos